quinnipiac poll, ten points ahead and taking no chances. the president hammering his opponent at an event moments ago. >> i don't believe we can get very far with leaders who write off half the nation as a bunch of victims who never take responsibility for their own lives. and i've got to tell you. as i travel around ohio and as i look out on this crowd i don't see a lot of victims. i see hard working ohioans. >> straight out on the trail and covering both campaigns beginning with ron mott on the phone with congressman paul ryan's event in ohio. we have heard several messages over the last week of the republican campaign. what do we expect to hear today? >> reporter: thomas, good day to you. congressman ryan just landed here on the way to the event. we are at walker manufacturing making lawn mowers and we think

the message is one governor romney brought here two days ago is that the economy cannot stand another four years of the president's failed economic policies and they're out here in the mountain west and the great plains and hear congressman ryan talk about the keystone pipeline and focusing on the country's national resources, bringing energy jobs online and putting people back to work and expecting the president to hit him on other things. >> one thing, though, ron, the obama campaign said, though, if romney loses ohio it is likely game over. is there a sense that the republican campaign is feeling that pressure? >> reporter: yeah. i think they're acknowledging they're behind. they don't believe it's game over and no republican president ever has gotten to the white house without taking ohio and even though he's behind, campaign insiders saying that their internal polling is much closer race than the public polls and will leave them where they are.

they think they have a fight in ohio on their hands. >> ron mott reporting. now christin welker in bowling green. >> reporter: good afternoon to you. president obama just wrapped up his speech at bowling green state university. he spoke before a pretty excited crowd of more than 5,000 people. heard you talking about the importance of ohio. this is president obama's 13th trip to ohio just this year. so that gives you a sense of just how important it really is to his overall campaign strategy and it comes about a week before early voting begins here in the buckeye state. the president today focusing the message touting the auto bailout and resonates with voters here in ohio. one out of every eight ohioans has a tie to the auto industry and defended himself of criticism of the romney campaign enough on china open,

romney took obama to task over the controversial 47% comments. analysts believe that part of this uptick that we're seeing in some of the swing state polling may be a result of those 47% comments and here if you look at the polls he is leading by as much as 8 to 10 points depending on which poll you're looking at but the obama campaign saying they're not spiking the football. they're going to run the campaign as if they're five to ten points behind. strong about the ground game here. it's stronger than the ground game in 2008 and the obama campaign concedes that. thomas? >> kristen welker reporting, thanks so much. joining me now is keith boyken, michael smerkonish and hogan ginley. gentlemen, good to have you here and we start with a brand new

quinnipiac/"the new york times" poll with mitt romney behind ten points in the battleground state of ohio. down nine in florida. 12 points in pennsylvania. hogan, looking at the numbers, given the state, does romney have a feasible path to the white house anymore? >> i think those numbers are a little bit inflated but i think for the most part everyone understands barack obarack becr little bit closer and it's got to be a great debate and distance himself from the obama plan in the sense to attack the president, attack the president in a way that he's never been attacked before and show the discrepancies and quit trying to be likable and focus on being capable and i say i'm the person capable of winning this election and capable of turning the country around. we have seen record unemployment under a this president, women or minorities.

unemployment is up. poverty is up. gas prices are up. and talk about how you're capable to get those things righted, get the ship righted and how you can lead the country out of where we are right now. that's what he's got to do and been unable to do so focused on a few self inflicted wounds and as we all know those self inflicted wounds are damaging because they undergird the stereotype that exists that he's cold and doesn't care about other american who is are less fortunate. that's not true but his gaffes have been really seriously injuring to him because they have quite frankly undergirded the stereotype that already exists. >> self inflicting wounds, the ones you refer to, could be tru tru tru truly detrimental. hard to believe this is a first time of a directly looking in the camera straight at the american viewer and the people

ad that's out now and targeting the middle class and those voters. take a look. >> president obama and i both care about poor and middle class families. the difference is my policies will make things better for them. we shouldn't measure compassion by how many people are on welfare. we should mention compassion by how many people are able to get off welfare and get a good paying job. >> all right. so michael, just because he uses the word compassion over and over again in an ad maybe doesn't mean he has the compassion and trying to show some here. with early voting in ohio starting next week, is it too late for an ad like this and to to try to bring up a narrative like this after down playing 47% of the country? >> you know, thomas, when mr. halperin write "game change" the sequel, that will have a chapter. that was a critical --

>> half the movie's already shot, michael. they can go straight to the tape. >> the next opportunity that he has to turn this around is a week from tonight and i'm agreeing with governor rendell that he needs to win that debate and if he doesn't win that debate it becomes less and less likely barring an error by the president or some world event that doesn't bode well for his presidency. it becomes more difficult. i don't look at as if there's three debates. that's one debate. the opportunity will be almost lost. >> governor rendell was on "morning joe" today. >> if i were planning a presidential campaign, there's less than one. stay on course. don't get distracted by the theme of the day. all of the romney campaign seems to be doing is reacting to the theme of the day. >> the theme of the day. so keith, as we talk about this, the romney camp seized on comments of the president,

14-year-old videotape they dredged up when president obama was a state senator in illinois pounding away on the bump in the road comment that was taped on "60 minutes" and just aired this last sunday. does it show that the romney campaign is grasping at straws at this point trying to gain the traction that they have tried to get all along? >> it's almost like they're sinking and they're grasping for a life preserver to stay afloat. you know, today you showed the clip at the beginning of the program and romney made the point that obama is constantly trying to pick winners and losers but he's picking losers but if that's the case he would be supporting mitt romney. they're ten points behind in ohio, a state that no republican has ever won the white house without winning. that said, almost insurmountable challenge for mitt romney. it's a bigger problem for the obama campaign and that's overconfidence. the polls look so good for obama right now that the obama campaign has to hope that they

get out and vote. >> hogan, similar question to you because this time on the romney surrogates basically blaming the media. when in doubt, go to that. "wall street journal" writes that mr. romney would do better to focus more on reducing his unforced errors than less on the fourth estate's political bias. is romney looking do you think though for any excuse now to explain why he's down in this race given the economic circumstances in the country that everyone's been talking about and the fact that that should be a strong suit and winning on that? >> igt. well, i mean, look. everyone knows that predominant amount of the media will vote democratic in this election. i mean, that's been pretty much proven by every poll and statistic out there. >> what was that? >> white house press corpse votes democratic.

most of the white house press corps votes democratic. that's nothing new. don't whine an it. you know the battlefield you're entering in to. what you have got to go is shift the bat toll the ground you want to battle upon and focus on the economy, focus on the failures of this president and as i mentioned before the self inflicted wound to them pretty bad for mitt romney because it undergirds the stereotype. he needs to shift focus to the already there stereotype of barack obama. he's a nice guy but way over his head. you want a beer with him, that's fine. but if you don't have a bejob y can't have a beer. >> one thing to blame it on reporters but how is it the fault of the roerpts he doesn't run on the record of massachusetts and bain was found to make the investors money and how is it reporters' faults that

there was a secretly taped videotape in florida that showed him saying that 47% of the country are moochers? it's the media's fault because they're reporting the things that come out of his mouth? >> no, no, no. i'm not -- no. i'm not blaming the media. i'm saying it's a fact that an overwhelming number of people in the media is liberal. that's fine. we know that going in. >> here's the overwhelming fact, we report what's coming out of his mouth. the interview on cnn saying i don't care about the very poor. who fed him that line? >> i know. no. i'm with you. i'm not disagreeing with you. i understand that. that's my point. the self inflicted wound is killing mitt romney predominantly because the self inflicted wounds are going to the core arguments from the other side. that he's some type of cold, heartless businessman that doesn't care about people. i don't agree with that but that's what the leaked tapes and those things are going to undergird. shift it to obama.

talk about him not being capable as a president and then debate obama's performance. quit having those self inflicted wounds that tend to damage this campaign and the reporters have to report on it. of course you do. it's very salacious, grainy video. it's the good stuff. the behind the scenes stuff. of course you're going to report it. >> it doesn't help when you mention 97% according to to some poll i've never seen. 97% of white house reporters voting democratic. it's a conspiracy theory. the same time ronald reagan won the presidency twice. george w. bush won the presidency twice. with the same so-called media liberal out there. why don't you focus on getting the guy elected and showing what his strong points are? if you do that maybe you'd have a chance but the problem is -- >> i agree. >> people don't know what mitt romney stand for. even republicans are concerned about this. >> i agree. >> the last word, thomas, we

tend to have a conversation about how there are 41 days left. there aren't. parts of the country are already voting and as you pointed out next tuesday in ohio, so it's on right now. so, it's not as if the romney campaign in three weeks can do something. it's immediate. >> yeah. you're talking about that. we are living in it right now and talk about the 41 days to go. >> real quickly. >> go ahead. >> adding elizabeth dole come pain that 86% of the people in north carolina said they knew that about the opponent they would never vote for the opponent and ran the ad. extremely controversial. the problem is 67% of the people already voted. this can be lost very quickly in early voting. no doubt about it. >> except that obama's been president for almost four years and mitt romney running for president for five years and people know about the candidates. there's little new to come out in six weeks. >> we shall see. the first debate on october 3rd. >> if they got it, use it. >> thanks so much. iran's president ahmadinejad makes the final and possibly

most controversial address before the u.n. assembly and did that this morning and egypt's new president delivers the first u.n. speech. next i'm going to talk to a former state department officer and reporter of "time" magazine. the nfl lockout, there are reports that the refs and the league resumed talks. what do you think? has the debacle over the replacements refs destroyed the reputation of the nfl? [ female announcer ] born from the naturally sweet monk fruit, something this delicious could only come from nature. now from the maker of splenda sweeteners, discover nectresse. the only 100% natural, no-calorie sweetener made from the goodness of fruit. the rich, sweet taste of sugar. nothing artificial.

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oh, hey alex. just picking up some, brochures, posters copies of my acceptance speech. great! it's always good to have a backup plan, in case i get hit by a meteor. wow, your hair looks great. didn't realize they did photoshop here. hey, good call on those mugs. can't let 'em see what you're drinking. you know, i'm glad we're both running a nice, clean race. no need to get nasty. here's your "honk if you had an affair with taylor" yard sign. looks good. [ male announcer ] fedex office. now save 50% on banners. [ male announcer ] fedex office. sleep train's inveis ending soon. sale save 10%, 20%, even 35% on a huge selection of simmons and sealy clearance mattresses. get 2 years interest-free financing on tempur-pedic. even get free delivery! sleep train stacks the savings high to keep the prices low. but hurry, the inventory clearance sale is ending soon. superior service, best selection,

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president mahmoud ahmadinejad made the final speech to the u.n. general assembly. protesters were outside. ahmadinejad struck some very familiar themes. >> translator: arms race and intimidation by nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction by the hegemonic powers have become prevalent. continued threat by the uncivilized zionists to resort to military action against our great nation is a clear example of this bitter reality. >> joining me now for reaction is jim frederic, international editor and executive editor of "time" magazine and joel rubin, former state department officer. good to have you here. >> thank you, thomas. >> let's just dive in, jim. as we saw in the clip here, ahmadinejad striking some very familiar themes. kind of flowery. >> yeah. >> off the top there but making some not so subtle reference that what he perceives to be

israel being a threat. but also saying that no one around the world feels safe and secure. >> right. >> kind of demonizing everybody else that does have stockpiles of weapons and he can't get any. >> absolutely. i think what's interesting about, you know, this particular speech which is a ailgt one, we have kind of come to look at ahmadinejad as a kind of comic relief of the things he said if weren't so deadly serious and scary and the speech for him fairly restrained. he didn't whip out any holocaust denial or overtly threaten anyone or demonize obama or israel and didn't mention israel by name, as example. >> zionists. >> exactly. struck the familiar themes of why should the western powers and people in the neighborhood have weapons and we don't? i think it's a swan song and for him a little bit restrained. >> other people to watch today, that people were watching is

egyptian president mohammed morsi addressing the u.n. for the first time take a look. >> translator: the behavior by some, some individuals and the insults heard on the prophet of islam muhammad is rejected. we reject this. we cannot accept it. and we will be the opponents of those who do this. we will not allow anyone to do this. >> so now morsi also reiterated he is against the use of violence. and yesterday, joel, president obama offered this robust defense of freedom of speech as a pre-eminent right in our country but meanwhile while this speech comes together is there a conflict between those two visions? >> thank you, thomas, for having me. there's really not a conflict. in a sense, president obama and netanyahu bracketing the speeches today of ahmadinejad

and morsi and we witness something fascinating which is that morsi shown that egypt is now taking a more aggressive leadership role in the middle east while iran has become more isolated, is on the ropes and ahmadinejad is season almost as a past, a clowny-type figure but this discussion of freedom of speech, of how to deal with violence against embassies, it's the president speaking with morsi about this and calmed down the situation in cairo so i think it's a dialogue to see more of and doesn't seem to be a clash not workable. >> all right. so jim, as joel said, egypt wanting to take more of a leadership role here and iran astro sized than ever before and talking about syria, world leader after world leader and president obama condemn the assad regime in syria. jim, can we expect to see any movement on that front? >> i mean, to continue that theme, i think morsi that really is the breakout leader of the

past couple of months and you see compare him to ahmadinejad. just how seriously as a statesman to be taken and not perceived as anybody's lap dog. here today he said in no uncertain terms of military interception in syria and a couple of weeks ago when he was in teheran he took a hard line with the iranians saying the support of the syrian regime is unrealistic and maybe a new regional statesman. >> joel, do you agree with that and the terms of movement for the u.n. against syria? >> i do. i think to piggyback on what jim said, morsi is showing that egypt is going to chart their own path. they're open to the west, they have a relationship with the united states that's strong and at the same time they're a democracy that is an islamic democracy, a political islamic party running it and charting a path to try to play all different angles and they criticized israel. they criticized iran. certainly, in the days ahead it's interesting to watch.

>> jim, watching morsi and the president's relationship develop and the president give the interview about not being an ally, not being an enemy, but egypt has been such a critical ally over the years, certainly through mubarak and relied heavily on the billions of dollars that we have sent and taxpayer dollars. does it come down now more to who needs more more? >> egypt has a treaty definition is and has been an ally and probably will be an ally. i think an underreported aspect of what obama's comments could have been interpreted as is a personal message while egypt is an ally, you know, it is not -- there are strings attached and we need to make sure to do business with each other, man to man, person to person, leader to leader. so yeah. i think that morsi is charting his own path but he knows that the united states is the most valuable ally that egypt is going to have.

>> thank you. >> thank you, gentlemen. next senator mccaskill hits todd akin in a brand new campaign ad. >> on august 19th, todd akin said only some rapes are legitimate. what will he say next? >> we'll get to today's first read with senior political editor mark murray who says the gop has a surprisingly uphill climb to win the senate. new details on a settlement of students pepper sprayed. remember this? during an occupy protest.

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there were 21 plaintiffs represented by the american civil liberties union expected to receive about $30,000 each from the university following approval of a federal judge. videos online of that incident in november of 2011 a rallying point for the occupy wall street movement. coming up, violent riots break out as a rally in greece, protest earls throwing fire bombs and setting fire to trees. we take you there for a full update. plus, a new poll revealing how many americans believe the health care law will be repealed and the results may surprise you on that. just one of the things we thought you should know. align. align naturally helps maintain digestive balance. ♪ ooh, baby, can i do for you today? ♪ try align today. we create easy to use, powerful trading tools for all. look at these streaming charts! they're totally customizable and they let you visualize what might happen next. that's genius!

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the republican party's push to win back the senate is beginning to look tougher and tougher. according to the first read team, if president obama wins the presidential contest, republicans would need to pick up a net of four senate seats to get that majority. senator todd akin deciding to stay in missouri's senate race despite calls from his own party

to withdrawal, that's a difficult goal to achieve. here's how mark halperin put it on "morning joe" today. >> democrats could pick up a seat in the senate and i don't know what happens to the house. if the president wins by these huge margins and they take -- they pick up the senate seat rather than lose control of the senate, the house is going to be in play. >> so joining me now is editor mark murray. mark, with akin staying in this race, and doggedly so. i mean, there have been a lot of calls on the right so see him get out, which races, though, do you see as republicans' best chances to win back the senate? how likely are they win? >> thomas, as you mentioned, right now senate republicans are facing a bit of an uphill climb. not impossible. it is doable. but it is an uphill climb. some of the races that i'm looking at most closely is seeing at the 50-50 contests and virginia, the battle between tim cain and george allen. very well if republicans are going to try to run the table to

either pick up a net of four seats that they need if president obama wins re-election, virginia will probably have to be a very big component there. republicans also have to hold on to the 50-50 contest in nevada between senator dean heller and shelly berkeley. they're two contests and one that we have all been watching, that one in massachusetts between elizabeth warren and scott brown. republicans really need to be able to win that so they can actually net elsewhere. >> all right. so one thing, though, when it comes to the todd akin-clare mccaskill race, we're seeing the first mccaskill ad taking him to task about the legitimate rape comments. let's take a look. >> todd akin said he didn't like social security. on september 3rd, 2011, todd akin said medicare was unconstitutional. march 16th, akin said he wants to abolish the minimum wage and

august 19th todd akin said only some rapes are legitimate. what will he say next? >> so, mark this is the first time she's used that about the legitimate rape comment. what strikes you about this ad in general? >> we knew it was coming and came pretty much minutes if not hours after we all knew that todd akin was officially going to remain in the missouri senate contest. the other thing i think is quite striking potentially more damaging ads that clare mccaskill could run with the republicans and mitt romney all saying that somehow todd akin needed to step down, i wouldn't be surprised if she had an ad quoting the republicans saying that something todd akin is unfit to serve in the u.s. senate. >> we'll get you on record of having said that. we'll see what happens over the next couple of weeks. let's do talk about the democrats winning back the house because here's what bill kristol

wrote saying if the polls are right and if nothing much changes over the next six weeks, the house could well be in play and says i don't think one can say it's now out of question that we could wake up on the morning of november 7th to the prospect of speaker nancy pelosi. how worried are republicans about that potential? >> well, they're of course they think that it's a potential and there is a path for democrats to be able to pick up the 25 seats they need to take the majority but right now most observers actually think that's unlikely. one due to redistricting. republicans strengthen a lot of vulnerable folks and they have that. also, when we have seen presidents win re-election, whether bill clinton in 1996 or george w. bush in 2004 that didn't really core late to a lot of shift of house races so it's likely a lot of observers, reports, they think that democrats at best case only pick up in the single digits of house seats, well below the 25 they

need. >> thanks so much. we have talked about the latest polls showing president obama opening up leads in three key swing states. we have ohio, pennsylvania, florida but digging deeper in to those numbers, a substantial gender gap in those states. in ohio, president obama has a 25-point lead with women and mitt romney leads by 8 points among men. in pennsylvania, president obama has a 21-point lead among women and romney holds a 1-point lead with men and then in florida president obama a 9-point lead with women and mitt romney leads by 3 points among men. but with all that focus on women, there's an article in politico arguing that white men may be the key in this election. that article is the work of senior political writer louis romano who joins me now. after decades, you say after taking a backseat to women and latinos, middle class white men are finding themselves front and center again and potential game changers for this election.

>> well, that's right. they're being courted by both sides. i don't think that they were necessarily ignored before. but everybody had sort of their demographic and republicans never had to worry about losing them. democrats knew that they would never get much more than 40% and still sort of where they are but what they can't do is lose any. so they're each trying to desperately hold on to what they have. otherwise they can't win. arguab arguably, some experts think that romney needs to get it up to 65% to pull off the election because he doesn't have anywhere else to go. latinos really aren't going to support him and women, he's not made great inroads with women and men, white men are the ones who have been hit worse with the economy so each side is hoping that the bottom doesn't fall out with white men. >> louis, back historically, president obama got 41% of the white male vote in '08 and swung

back to the traditional republican support for the 2010 midterms. when's the big influencer for them now? >> you know, i think again it's the economy. i think that these are the men, these are largely middle class men. we are not talking about -- i mean, the republicans are always going to win the white wealthy men. the swing voters here are the middle class men and those are the ones that have been hurt the hardest and not ideological. they're the guys that were the reagan democrats. they just a want and this economy has really, really hurt them. i think that they were looking at romney as maybe somebody, you know, that could bring them out of this. i think recent events and mistakes on romney's part hurt him with them, specifically the 47% comment he made in florida a few of the guys in iowa said they were leaning towards romney and shook them up, that he was a guy that was too wealthy and he

was never going to have middle class interests. >> louis romano, thank you. >> you're welcome. thank you. violence erupted today as tens of thousands of greeks took to the streets of athens to protest up coming austerity measures there. cnbc's julia chatterly is in athens with more. >> reporter: thanks, thomas. things are returning to normal. the traffic, perhaps the only signs of what we saw some litter that lines the streets. the protests did begin peacefully. tens of thousands of people here to show their contempt of the latest austerity membshls and t anarchists arrived. they had petrol bombs and began to engage the police and setting up and then the crowds dispersed. what we're seeing now, no sign of the protests. very, very peaceful on the streets and key point to

remember is this was set to coincide with a vote in parliament. they haven't yet happened. they still have to be part of parliament and agreed. that's going to happen over the next week or so and the risk is seeing today happens again later on and it actually escalates because at that point the people here are going to understand just what the details of these cuts are. they're very focused right now on what's going on in spain, too. and the protests in portugal, a definite sense here it's not just greece and it's finally saying no to austerity. no to more cuts. for now, though, back to you. coming up, how rising home prices could boost president obama's chances. i'll speak with the author of "foreclosure nation." that's coming up. first, there's a lot going on here. a new poll shows few americans believe president obama's signature health care law will be repealed despite republican promises of that.

in the ap/gfk poll, a total of 72% believe it will take full effect with minor changes. on "the tonight show" ann romney joked that, yes, her husband does shop at costco. >> would you say he's frugal or cheap? >> cheap. >> cheap? wow. really cheap? >> okay, yeah. do you want to know what he does when we leave the house? he turns off the hot water heater. when we come -- >> turns off the water heater? >> when we come back, he forgets he has to turn it on and cold showers, they're not that bad. bob... oh, hey alex. just picking up some, brochures, posters copies of my acceptance speech. great! it's always good to have a backup plan,

in case i get hit by a meteor. wow, your hair looks great. didn't realize they did photoshop here. hey, good call on those mugs. can't let 'em see what you're drinking. you know, i'm glad we're both running a nice, clean race. no need to get nasty. here's your "honk if you had an affair with taylor" yard sign. looks good. [ male announcer ] fedex office. now save 50% on banners. [ male announcer ] you start your day... love you, too. ...thinking about what's important to you -- your family... ...the mortgage... the kids' college tuition. [ cellphone ringing ] but life insurance? [ horn honking ] life is unpredictable. that's why at fidelity life we want you to think about term life insurance -- taking care of your family's future expenses if something happens to you. it's easy. we get to know you and your needs, then give you our best quote and our competitors'. you choose and save up to 70%. that could mean $250,000 of coverage for just $15 a month.

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vitamin d deficiency. that data shows that newborns exposed to air pollution through the mothers had a higher risk of vitamin d deficiencies than those not exposed. a new sign of economic recovery and one that affects millions of americans. home values. finally on the rise posting the strongest ganls since 2005. this according to the new data of the 20 biggest cities in the country. home prices have gone up 6% in the first 7 months of 2012. that's the good news. bad news is that sales of new homes are down from last month. real estate attorney and author joins me now to sort it out for us. sherry, are we seeing the sustainable trend of home prices moving up? are we seeing the trends move in the right direction? >> tom, there's no question that several months behind us now called a sustainable trend,

whether it's the numbers are going up or not, 1.5% annual appreciation is not what we would historically call a healthy housing market but better than nothing. to really see some sustainable upward mobility here we have to do something about wages because average americans still can't afford to continue buying more expensive homes. >> explain why are the reasons existing to see the sales go down. >> well, that's a market specific situation but for the most part it's with the inventory. there's a scarcity of inventory at this point in part because so many homes are still backlogged in the foreclosure and default phase. for every home foreclosed, we have three homes where the homeowner is late on the mortgage or in default or foreclosure. the other reason is that the huge chunk of the buyer that is are buying in the busiest markets are investors and those folks are basing the price they bid on the rental value of the home, not on as much comparable

sales using them for rentals and rent rates have gone up 20% since the bubble so it's actually pricing a lot of other folks out of the market but causing home prices to go up even if sales aren't necessarily keeping pace. >> you know, house tore cli, though, this time of year is not the best for the market with kids back in school and parents and family like to be settled by this time to start their life, their family lives with, you know, with the kids are doing with the schools but do you think that after the election, whoever's elected that the administration will support housing versus renting and see something bigger in the spring? >> that's super, super, super important. probably more important now than ever before. we know as far as wages go and what average folks, not investors, average americans pay for a home depends on how much they're earning. employment is struggling along and that's what's happening with home prices, too. they're rising but very, very slowly.

struggling along with unemployment. we know that even those folks employed have not seen a raise in two or three years and average americans earning less than ten years ago. how the heck are they supposed to be paying more for houses earning less money? some initiatives from washington that really strongly support sustainable housing are going to be essential to promoting the american dream moving forward. >> really is the lynch pin for the american dream is home ownership. everybody growing up knows that. >> right. and that goes to the traditional ones like the mortgage interest deduction and new, creative initiatives like a rent to own program. >> great insight. thank you. coming up next in today's news nation gut check, do you think the replacement ref debacle damaged the nfl's reputation? first, the singing legend made famous by "moon river" passed away. andy williams died in his home last night in branson, missouri,

after a yearlong battle with bladder cancer. he had a tv show on nbc in 1962 as well as a christmas special. along with "moon river" williams was best known for singing "happy heart" and "it's the most wonderful time of the year." andy williams was 84 years old. i'm done! "are you a cool mom?" i'm gonna find out. [ female announcer ] swiffer wetjet's pads are better than ever. now they have the scrubbing power of mr. clean magic eraser so you don't have to get down on your hands and knees to scrub away tough, dried-on stains. hey, do you guys think i'm "momtacular" or "momtrocious"? ♪ [ female announcer ] swiffer. now with the scrubbing power of mr. clean magic eraser. now with the scrubbing power [ female announcer ] some people like to pretend a flood

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all right. it's time for the "news nation "gut check. talks are on back on with the nfl and referee association. public outraged exploded over a number of bad calls in recent games including a questionable catch that left seattle or let seattle beat green bay on monday and then this, the kick by baltimore that angered bill belichick so much he grabbed that ref.

he got a $50,000 fine for it. rob, i want to show everybody the front of "the post." oh say can't owe see? they have a good time with the headlines. but explain what the very latest is now. that's been talk this afternoon that maybe they were going to go back under one roof and hash this out. >> yeah, thomas. after monday night's debacle, the owners and officials stayed up until 2:00 in the morning last night trying to hash this thing out. reports are coming out now this afternoon that they're very close, that they have agreed on some key issues. the big issue that's still outstanding, of course, the one that's always a problem in negotiations, money. but apparently they are getting close. and i think a lot of people now following this think that the replacement refs if not by tomorrow night which is the next scheduled game in the nfl will be out of there and the regular officials back by this weekend.

nothing confirmed yet but they seem to be close. >> when we talk about this, the money, the league earned last year to the demands of the refs, basically where the -- you know, the crater is between the two sides, is the league being unreasonable by not giving in to what they'd like to see? >> well, i mean, if you just look at the numbers, it's sort of ridiculous. right? this is a rounding error in the league's revenues. you are talking about a league making over $9 billion a year across the board and the officials, what they're asking for is this is all retirement related. they want a defined pension and the league wants to shift them all to a 401k and the difference for the league is somewhere between $3 million and $4 million dollars a year. this is really insignificant. i think the bigger part of it is, thomas, the issue of control. and the league wants to have more control over the referees. they want to be able to also frankly get rid of referees they don't think are doing a good job

and making bad calls. they wanted a reserve pool of referees available to put in to games when the regular officials are not available. so a lot of this is control oriented but the money looking at it on the face, thomas, ridiculous to be fighting over this small amount of money tie owners fighting to have the replacement refs that have been watching fill in? >> not these guys. they want actual good officials to be able to fill these. these guys -- >> a clarification. >> these guys are not even division i college refs. they're college iii and high school and some according to a report are rejects of the lingerie football league. i don't know if you're familiar with that. >> yeah, yeah, yeah. >> not serious football. >> totally familiar with it. on the front page of "daily news" and totally for that baltimore call just because it's for the ravens and i'm a fan. thanks so much. what does your gut tell you? has the lockout damaged if nthe

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now you're a real fisherman. [ male announcer ] humana. iran's president, the united nations on yom kippur and surprised everyone. the numbers don't lie. new polls today in key states and they don't add up for one of the campaigns. >> there's an unavoidable shortage of bacon on the horizon and i'm afraid. coal miners, truckers, air traffic controllers today a cross-country journey for jobs under the radar. asking whether paul ryan made a mistake joining the romney ticket. it's wednesday, september 26th an you're in "the cycle."